Viva la Santa Monica Steps!

Slowhopes spent the best part of a decade jogging up and down the Santa Monica steps, all 189 of them. They’re at the corner of 4th Street and Adelaide, one of the more gorgeous corners of the universe, and overlook Malibu Beach and the Pacific Ocean.

There’s a class war brewing over the steps because personal trainers have turned the boulevard on 4th Street into a public gym. When Slowhopes lived there, sneaker companies would sometimes do shoe promotions. TV crews would shoot the workout artists, and needless to say, the steps were an outstanding view in more ways than the one looking out at the ocean.

Of course, it’s a little stressful to own one of the $7 million homes that line Adelaide (among them, Santa Monica Councilman Bobby Shriver and Don Bachardy the ex-lover of the late Christopher Isherwood), but the Santa Monica steps are also a wonderful example of the genius that is America when America gets it right: the steps are all about enjoying beauty, they’re as green an activity as you can get, they’re non-exclusive, accessible, fun, and free. Maybe it’s more of an example of California getting it really right– only now, there are cops posted, writing $158 citations to anyone who lies down (as Slowhopes did every day for 9 years) to stretch and do a few stomach crunches.

Wrong! (How can California, with the all-time workout artist as its gov, allow this to happen?)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/us/25santamonica.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin